Creating support groups_1

The Support Group structure is defined as Company > Support Organization > Support Group, which represents how a company is structured from a support perspective. Support groups are typically used to assign work in the BMC Helix ITSM applications.

Understanding support groups

The following video provides an overview on support groups:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w5rMXHTbXU

To create support groups for standard configuration

You can create support groups for companies that have a type of Operating Company, Customer, Vendor, or Service Provider.

1. From the Application Administration Console, click the Standard Configuration tab and select the correct company.
2. Click the Create link next to Support Group.
3. Enter or select information in the Support Organization field. Enter the name of the support organization to create it. After you add the first support group to the organization, you can select the organization when you add the next support group.
4. Enter or select information in the Support Group Name field.
5. Enter or select the support group role. The Support Group Role field describes the role that the support group has in the organization.
   For example, the support group named Internal Support might provide the Help Desk function, while another support group provides Tier 2 support.
   You can select from the following support group roles, which are levels in the support group hierarchy:
   • Help Desk
   • Tier 1
   • Tier 2
   • Tier 3
     You can also select the Line of Business support group role, which can be assigned to a non-IT team that supports customers with a particular business need.
6. Click Add.
   
7. When you are finished configuring support organizations and groups for the company, click Close.

To create support groups for custom configuration

As a part of configuring organizational structure, you add and configure support groups. This procedure describes how to add a support group. When you create a support group, a permission group is automatically added to the Group form in Action Request System, which can be used to control access to configuration items (CIs) in BMC Helix ITSM: Asset Management.

1. From the Application Administration Console, click the Custom Configuration tab.
2. From the Application Settings list, select Foundation > Organizational Structures > Support Groups, and then click Open. 
   

3. On the Support Group tab, enter or select information in the Support Company, Support Organization, Support Group Name, and Support Group Role fields.

   Important

   The Support Group Role field describes the role that the support group has in the organization, such as the Help Desk function or Tier 2 support.

4. Click Save. 
   The Support Group is created. You can modify the support group to change On-Call options and add more information.

   Vendor Group	Select Yes to indicate that the support group is an external support group or No for an internal support group. Vendor groups are used in Service Desk: Incident Management for defining underpinning contracts with external vendors. You can also select Vendor Groups on the Vendor tab of the Incident form in Service Desk: Incident Management.
   On-Call Group	Select Yes to indicate that the support group has an on-call schedule that can be used for assignment after normal business hours.

To add members to a support group

Make sure that the users have been added in the People form and are designated as Support Staff.

1. Log in to Mid Tier.
2. From the Application Administration Console, click the Custom Configuration tab.
3. From the Application Settings list, select Foundation > Organizational Structures > Support Groups, and then click Open.
4. On the Support Group form, search for the support group.
5. Select the support group, and then click the People Display tab.
6. Click Add. 
7. On the Support Staff Search dialog box, search for the support staff to add by using the search criteria fields provided.
8. From the list that is displayed, select the users to relate to the support group.
9. Click Add, and then click Close.